“I’d say 99 percent of our residents have really embraced it,” Kunz said of the curbside collections. “The visibility of what residents see has really helped. They see that trash is not piled on the sidewalk.”

In the first year, he said the tonnage of kitchen and other trash collections dropped 10 percent, while the quantity of bottles, paper and other recyclable material rose to 25 percent of the total trash and recycled collection.

By one measure the town’s recycling jumped a dramatic 50 percent, from 2,100 tons the previous year to 3,200 tons in 2013-2014.

Kunz said those results could have been even better, since the first-year numbers are for only nine months of the fiscal year – October through June – not the full 12 months.

“Next year will be even better,” he said of the 2014-2015 fiscal year, which began July 1.

Sullivan said that performance is especially gratifying because “we took some hits rolling the plan out” in the initial weeks.

“We appreciated that there was angst,” he said. “But the facts bear out that the program has been very successful. Feedback has been overwhelmingly positive.”

A lower trash fee is another sign of success. Sullivan and the solid waste department have trimmed the annual fee from $160 to $150, thanks to a dramatic rise in the amount of recyclable material that’s being collected.

Braintree’s program uses two 65-gallon carts – one with as green lid for recycled material and one with a blue lid one for other trash. Recyclable material costs one-third as much to process as trash.

The automated pickup started last October, along with a new trash contract with Sunrise Scavenger of Hyde Park. Braintree had previously been part of a regional compact with Quincy and Weymouth. Sullivan has said the Sunrise Scavenger contract will save the town as much as $750,000 through 2017, when the current five-year contract ends.

Kunz’s staff and town officials spent a lot of time in advance, publicizing and explaining the move to automated collection, in which single-driver trucks using hydraulic arms lift the carts and empty them into the truck.

While the collections are based on the standard 65-gallon carts, the town was prepared to exchange those for 35-gallon carts to as many residents as necessary, to help make the new program work.

The smaller carts would be available for elderly residents who couldn’t maneuver the big carts easily, and to people who produced smaller amounts of trash. As it turned out, Kunz said his staff swapped only 275 carts – fewer than 3 percent of the 10,300 carts from which Sunrise Scavengers collects.

Households that generate more trash can get a second blue barrel for an extra $100 a year. But they can buy a second green recycling container for a one-time cost of only $50. Sullivan said he’s going to buy one.

For the program’s second year, Kunz said his department aims to “reinforce the proper way to do things” – using mailed brochures and street visits to remind residents to place their separate carts for trash and recycling two feet apart, to make the automated collections smoother.

They’ll also remind residents to not pile extra trash on top of their carts. The town’s contract doesn’t allow Sunrise Scavengers to take that material, so the extras just slow the collections for everyone else.

“All it takes is one person on a street,” Kunz said. “Then we get 10 calls.”

Excess trash should be taken to the Covanta Energy transfer station at 257 Ivory St. Kunz said the station is open every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday except for holidays, for curbside quantities of trash.

Residents need a town trash sticker to take material to the transfer station, but those stickers are free from the tax collector’s office at Town Hall, to anyone who has paid the trash fee.

Details about Braintree’s recycling program are available on the town’s website at braintreema.gov/recycling. Residents can also call 781-794-8088.

Lane Lambert may be reached at llambert@ledger.com or follow him on Twitter @LLambert_Ledger.